Saint Mary Romanian Orthodox Church

We have in the midst of our Romanian-American community members that dedicate their time with passion to things and activities out of the ordinary. We all know that the outcome of such endeavors many times passes by unnoticed or with little to no recognition from our peers, and that is unfortunate.
There are yet times, when the stars align and the fruits of such men and women's creative efforts are stepping into the spotlight at events that go beyond our community. The greater public has then a chance to admire, praise and enjoy these creations for the enlightment of us all.

Here and now, we're presenting Dr. Alexandru Bortnov's achievments at Minnesota State Fair 2012 as he describes them in his own words:

Here some more pictures. First year I have a cantaloupe and rare here in Minnesota white summer squash-zucchini, which I am growing this year at Lithfield land, but picture was taken in my backyard.
On one picture taken from the MN State Fair you can see Cornelian cherries (pic.131) in the middle of the picture (oval cherry). It took for me 15 years to get 24 cherries for this unique, but not hardy fruit variety very popular in Moldova.
20 of cherries I presented at State Fair. I got the second premium for them. On the same picture you can see my new grape varieties without the name yet (on the bottom left corner yellowish variety and on the top second grape in second row also from the left - reddish variety). For both I got 3-rd premium.
I presented St.Anna grape, which I created also, but did not get any awards, because clusters were small in comparison with others who presented their grapes in that competition category. But for the wine made from those grapes I got the first premium, and 3- rd premium in desert wine category for Polar Isaura (also created and named by me) and 5th premium for the white wine category (I presented wine made of blend of local grapes - St.Pepin and Brianna). I did not get any awards in a competition category - red table wine made from 100% grapes grown in Minnesota, because , probably, someone had better wine than I had.
Total from 8 competitions I got 6 awards. Since 2009 I did not get 1st premium, and this year judges gave it to me in category Concord type of wine. For this year are more important for me - 1st premium and 3rd premium I received for the wines made from my own creations.

Sincerely, Alexandru Bortnov.